My Take...

7 December 2016

Playoffs? PLAYOFFS? Don't talk to me about playoffs?! [Again ...]

It is the college football post-season again. And
again we have controversy as to who legitimately
belongs in the playoff. The more things change, yes. The more
they remain the same. I first proposed a sixteen-team
playoff ... in 1994. That proposal can be read here.

The landscape has changed somewhat since back
then. There have been comings and goings - and
reorganizations - of NCAA college conferences.
Presently we have "The Power 5" and the "Group of
5".

I now believe the sweet spot for playoff teams
is eight. Take the 5 conference winners and choose 3
more by our "Blue Ribbon Panel" from the remaining
teams to fill the tournament.

Take the top 8 teams as determined by the
committee. If we had that 8 team playoff today it might
look something like this:

I personally would have USC in the 8-spot instead of Wisconsin. And there
you have an example of the continuance of discussion. Never gets old. But 8
teams is plenty. It keeps the value of and interest in the regular season.
In addition I would seriously consider changing some things:

1] Drop the Conference Championship games
2] Develop a fair money distribution of all the
Playoff games to ALL Power 5 teams
3] Increase scholarship living expenses to players
4] Preserve the Bowl System. It's a nice reward for
teams and provides an economic boost.
5] Normalize schedules. Some conferences play fewer
conference games than others.
6] Legislate OOS [out of conference] schedules.
Require that at least ONE game be against another
Power 5 team and no more than ONE game be against a
lower division team
7] Cap participants in the Playoff from any given
conference at 3.

Alternatively, if we must keep the Conference
Championship games then the process should change as
to how the participants are determined for these
games. Use the current blue ribbon committee process -
but at the conference level - to determine who plays.
Then the Conference Champions have more weight and
less controversy as Playoff participants.